The Language of the Flowers was a popular method to express feelings where words might be improper, but did you know other means of doing so? Some ladies used their parasols, as well as their fans, gloves, and hankies to flirt with a gentleman (or alternatively, tell them to shove it!). — Bree

“This boy, then. He wasn't new. Wasn't one of the worst people in the common room, those rotten rich boys - like Mr. Jailkeeper - who could not fathom a world beyond their own farts. Was a good working class lad, so he'd heard. Had a bit of a weird looking face, and a bit of a weird thing for preaching. Still.”

The first "sensation" novel, and an early detective story! From goodreads:

'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.

This one has oft been tossed around as a potential CBC title, and I'm super stoked to have an excuse to read it at last!

This is a discussion thread for people who have read or are reading the book in question. With that in mind, there are likely to be spoilers throughout. However, in the event of major twists or “how it ends”, please wrap content in spoiler tags.

June 4, 2018 – 2:39 PM This post was last modified: June 4, 2018 – 2:41 PM by Ophelia Devine

I'm on Chapter 7 or so, mild spoilers for Chapter... 4? 5?

This is less book discussion and more "I want to tell you guys this story that happened recently from work" so buckle in. xD

I had this woman bring in a "stray" dog. She knew who owned the dog, but said her neighbors couldn't keep him in their yard and he was always breaking out and chasing her smaller dog, and had attacked said small dog in the past, and attacked her when she tried to pull him off the little dog, would chase her into the house, etc. etc. This dog's name is "Bowser" and he's a huge, tan and white pit bull, so it's hard to say whether he really attacked anything or whether she just equates pits with attacking. Pit bulls do usually have strong prey drives and it's not uncommon to meet one who can tear through a cat or a chicken or a small dog, but you just never know.

So I called Animal Control and said "Hey, do you know Bowser? Is he really aggressive or not, before I go poke him with needles?" Animal Control doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about so I told them the whole story, but this woman has never called them about the dog (which means she's probably exaggerating how 'aggressive' he is). So I vaccinate him, call his owners, move him back to the kennel, and go on with my day. Twenty minutes later, Animal Control calls me and says "Oh, hey, Bowser's owners called us. They're coming to the humane society to reclaim him, but they're bringing a different stray pit bull."

So it turns out that when Bowser's owners realized their dog had gotten out of their yard again, they said to their assembled friend group (some of whom were probably drunk lbr), "Oh, no! Our pit got out! Help us find him or else he'll end up at the humane society again and we'll have to pay to bail him out!" The friends scatter, searching the neighborhood for this dog. One of them spots a female, all-black pit bull in a fenced yard and decides 'Oh, I found Bowser, I'm going to go steal this dog out of this yard and bring him to my friends." Which he does. Bowser's owners have no idea where this dog came from or how to return it, so they bring her to the humane society as a stray.

Meanwhile, Animal Control gets a call from the owner of the black pit (whose name is Chevy), and they're frantic, because some drunken fool just stole their dog out of their yard. So Animal Control calls me and we confirmed we had the dog, and waived their impound fees when they came to reclaim her, because... that was not their fault. :P

ALL THAT TO SAY, this is immediately what I thought of when those guys drove by in the chaise and the only description of this woman they offered was that she was probably wearing white. THIS IS HOW YOU END UP ACCIDENTALLY STEALING THE WRONG PIT BULL FROM THE YARD, GUYS. DESCRIPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT.

I really liked it, I preferred Lady Audley's Secret but it was really good and kept me on my toes.

ShowSpoiler:

I think my only character complaint would be that Laura Fairley's delicateness was nearly grating and would have been were this not set in the 1850s and also written at time, although I'd forgive a contemporary historical novel anyway since it's that whole Victorian dainty fainting female aesthetic.

Marian was my favorite, and I love the dynamic with the Count. He came across as such a creep in that respect and it was amazingly cringey.

Plot-wise, I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't further explained how and why the Count ended up marrying Laura's aunt. Also why Laura's father chose Glyde for her - he was shit at keeping his behavior in check and he had a reputation for being a douche. I find it hard to believe his being betrothed to her was a coincidence in terms of Laura's relation to Sir Percival's BFF's wife and the will. I mean I suppose they could just have been lucky bastards but it must've occurred to Fosco sooner that a dead Lady Glyde meant his wife got money, I can't believe he wouldn't have known.

I know I've no right to expect any differently of a novel written in the VE, but it really bothers me that we get to hear directly from male narrators and the only female contribution so far is excerpts from her diary. D<

is it a crime to love too well?To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, to act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky, for those who greatly think, or bravely die?

I felt like they used the same "EGADS, A PLOT TWIST!" device twice, with the reveal that Anne Catherick was illegitimate (gasp! horror! as if that wasn't pretty obvious from the moment they talked about how much she looked like Laura) and then the reveal that Sir Percival was, also. I was glad that they finally explained why he felt the need to go fake a marriage registry sooner or later (and it was very much in character for it to be because he needed cash) because for the whole church/lawyer/fire saga I didn't really get it. Why go do something obviously illegal when no one was bothering to ask about it anyway? :P

Anyway. I liked the Marian/Count dynamic, too. Some parts of it reminded me a teeeeensy bit of Tib/Tig. More on his side than hers. I wasn't so bothered by Laura being frail and delicate because she did make some attempts to have agency of her own when she went to London after Marian, and I think she had a sort of 'quiet strength' in keeping her composure through the first half of the novel that VE readers would have appreciated.

Everything after the fire felt like falling action to me, and there was a lot of it. Maybe it was supposed to still be rising through the vague political Illuminati stuff, but that seemed a little shoehorned in to me since there hadn't been any build up to any of it in the rest of the novel. It was more like the author wrote the book that he wanted to write, with this evasive Secret that finally came out in a very dramatic scene, and then was like "well, shit, I can't end this without giving the Count/Laura/Mr. Fairlie the endings they deserve," so he came up with this whole other plot to hastily fix those points up. I didn't hate it, it just felt like something of a nonsequitor.

is it a crime to love too well?To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, to act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky, for those who greatly think, or bravely die?